I WONDER if any of your readers can supply me with any information about the lady in the enclosed photograph,

It was probably taken in the 1880s. Is the dress a typical mourning dress for a widow of substance in that period?

In the original the dress has black buttons from the neck down the front and a gold coloured broach at the neck.

The dress has a bustle. The lady seems to be holding the photograph of what could be her deceased husband. My research so far suggest that she may have been the widow of Joseph Crook, one time M.P. for Bolton and a cotton manufacturer, who lived at Oakfield, Chorley New Road, with his wife Mary Dorothy, aged 53, his sons John Howard, aged 20, and Thomas, aged 19, and four servants, one of whom was our great grandmother, Jane James.

Her sister, Sarah Ann James, was a servant in the house of Thomas Mather Walmsley, the owners of The Forge. But I don't think the photograph is of Mrs Walmsley, who would appear to have been much younger at the time.

The two James sisters had three brothers, William E, Fred, and Francis. Information about their descendants would also be appreciated.

Mr F J Fox

11, Whiteside Way

Thornton Cleveleys